Digiday published a “debate” today with publishers weighing in on mobile web vs. mobile apps. While the answer may often be “both, ” the fact that this debate is still going on is a bit funny to me. For some things, apps will definitely be important, but if social, search and sharing are important parts of a publisher’s marketing and discovery strategy, I can’t see how they can ignore browser-based content.

After a concerted effort by FT to get its subscribers to switch from their native ipad/iphone apps to the paper’s HTML5 web app, they have now pulled those native subscription apps from the App Store. Bravo!

While this approach won’t work for all content owners, it clearly sets the stage for others to follow suit. Those publishers that own – and want to continue to own – direct subscriber relationships, can provision HTML5 web apps that deliver an excellent customer experience directly via their desktop and mobile websites. No percentage paid to Apple, more fluid development/upgrades, no review process and all the customer data a publisher typically enjoys.

I can’t be sure how many subs the FT has via the HTML5 web app. PaidContent and Mediapost both speculate in recent coverage, but I can’t glean a clear answer (please help me out if you can). The FT decision to pull the apps from the store certainly suggests they are happy with the numbers and how they are trending.

It will be interesting to see which publishers follow FT’s lead here. The NYTimes has a great Chrome web app and others are working away on HTML5 executions of one kind or another. Apps are not going away, but I predict HTML5 web apps will be a priority for many over the next twelve months.

I agree wholeheartedly that It’s time for mobile rich media to scale. The slapping-banners-on-phones business has become one of arbitrage…Networks buying and selling from each other like low-rent real estate brokers. The proverbial race to the bottom. Haven’t we seen this movie before?

There is an excellent story to be told about engagement rates from rich media ads on mobile. A beautiful experience with high engagement will be attractive to brands if they can get it at scale. Getting away from proprietary SDK’s and other obstacles to scale is critical to that end. Using HTML5 for mobile rich media ads should help this happen.

More good stuff about HTML5 from Xavier Facon writing on Read Write Web.

I had the good fortune to work with Xavier Facon while I was VP Sales at Crisp Wireless in the early days of mobile web. I’ve written quite a bit on HTML5 and the opportunity it creates for publishers. Xavier makes some good pointsabout HTML5 as a preferred medium for rich media advertising that scales across platforms, handsets, etc. Also some good points about adserving and metrics with HTML5.

Many of my clients on the publisher side are making moves toward HTML5 because it solves many of the fragmentation problems associated with silos, applications, and the inefficiencies of current routines for publishing across platforms. Not a client, but check out FT.com’s HTML5 web app.

It seems clear that this is a game changer – or should be – for many in the emerging platform value chain. Publishers are taking note and Xavier’s piece should help get some advertisers and ad tech providers moving toward HTML5 as well.

There are some interesting articles covering the launch of the beautiful new FT.com HTML5 web app. It looks and feels like a native iOS app and is a great view into the capabilities/possibilities of HTML5 for publishers….But it gets better: It caches content on the device and allows for a great offline experience. This has been the gating factor that has led many publishers to cling to native apps rather than web or mobile web. Go play with it and let me know what you think.

Naturally, there are great business reasons to consider this approach, too. For publishers with a thriving audience, there is no great reason to pay the subscription vig to apple. Publishers can better control their destiny when they aren’t dependent on apple.